Birklands

Welcome to Birklands!

Miss Allison and Mrs Walker

This half term we are looking at the skeleton and healthy eating! We have so many exciting activities to do and interesting things to find out about. These include: the names of the bones, jobs of the bones, why we have bones, how to keep our body healthy, the different food groups and how a balanced food diet helps us function and keep fit.

In Maths this half term, we are focusing predominantly place value and calculations. It is important that the children fully understand place value and crack calculations as these skills can be transferred into all other areas of maths. We are also having a big push on big maths which will help the children with their speed in solving calculations and how to tackle different sums.

In English, we are continuing with non-fiction texts, looking at character descriptions, setting descriptions and stories. We are focussing on superheroes, the 'traction man' book is being used as the main stimulus for our writing.

We will be continuing to use our 'Wonder Wall' to ask any questions we come up with as the term unfolds. We will be practising our research skills to try and find the answers to as many as we can!

This term we will also be heading down to the allotment to do some planting, weeding and tidying, and also to the rivers and ponds- weather permitting. Please let us know if you would be interested in coming along and helping us out!

Things to Remember

In Year 3/4, our PE slots are on Mondays and Wednesdays. However, we love to get outside and like to be prepared for everything. For this reason, we ask that you bring your PE kits in on Monday and keep them in school all week.

We are lucky to have a class ukulele lesson every Friday morning, so please remember to bring your uke with you!

Reading

Ideally, children should be reading at least three times a week at home. This could be silently to themselves, aloud to a grownup or sibling or even to the family pet! Mrs Andrews will award reading stars to those children who have three or more reads noted in their reading record on a Friday. We will also be organising special treats for our super readers at the end of each half term. We encourage children to read a range of texts. This will include their school book but also please encourage them to read books of their choice so they get a real enjoyment for reading.

If you’re in need of some inspiration for making these reading sessions more interesting, please just ask!

Times Tables

It is absolutely crucial that our children have a good grasp of their times tables as soon as possible to support them with their Maths work. While we will practise in lesson time, children need to be aware of their own target tables and practise them at home!

Spelling

In Year 3/4, we have a list of tricky words that children MUST be able to spell by the time they leave us, as well as more common ones. They will be given ten spellings each Friday and will be tested on them the following Friday. Please encourage them to practice them at home and also find the definitions of these words.

For regular updates on what we are up to, check out our twitter page - @BirklandsClass !